Evaluation of Fixation and Reaction Gaze Points Near Speed Humps on Urban Roads in India

Isolated speed humps are extensively used as speed-calming measures for motorized vehicles of different categories on urban roads. Most urban roads in India are provided with either a trapezoidal or circular speed hump based on the road category. The height of these humps influences the per cent reduction of speed at the crown of the hump. It has been observed that passenger motorized vehicles do not reduce their speeds before a speed hump, even when it is large. The objective of this study was to evaluate the driver perception and reaction distance near a speed hump and thereby examine the sensitivity of these parameters on the drivers of different age groups. For this, drivers of different ages (a total sample size of five subjects) were considered for real-time eye-tracking experiments. The experimental results of all subjects’ eye tracking images were examined in this study. The visit duration or dwell time for an area of interest (AOI) was estimated and compared among various drivers. The speed data were also collected using a velocity-box along with eye-tracking data of each dri­ver at the identified location. The collected eye-tracking experimental data were analysed using statistical techniques. Regression analysis between vehicular speed and fixation count was performed. It was observed that the power model was the best fit for the collected data. The visualization data helped to reveal the characteristics of fixation and reaction gaze points near the identified speed humps. The study results showed that driver attention was double when vehicle located between 0 and 20 m than 20 and 40 m from the speed hump. Drivers in the age group between 20 and 25 years had 48% AOI of visit duration, while for those in the age group between 30 and 40 years, it was 67%.